Midland's restaurant workers weigh in on strikes

Published 5:42 pm, Thursday, December 5, 2013

A sign outside the north side Chick-fil-A states the business is conducting interviews for new applicants, photographed Thursday. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

A sign outside the north side Chick-fil-A states the business is conducting interviews for new applicants, photographed Thursday. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: JAMES DURBIN

Midland's restaurant workers weigh in on strikes

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Front-line fast-food workers took to the streets Thursday to call for higher wages, planning walkouts in 100 cities and rallies in 100 more.

Many chanted, “We can’t survive on $7.25!” and called for substantially higher pay at $15 an hour, according to Associated Press reports.

But in the oil patch, a heated economy makes it tough to keep fast food workers behind the fryers no matter how fat their paychecks.

It’s not as bad now as it was in the past, said Jose Cuevas, owner of six JumBurrito locations.

When unemployment dipped below 3 percent during the summer of 2008, Cuevas had to shut down his Wadley Avenue location at 3 p.m. every day for months. Some restaurants posted starting pay on billboards, creating a public wage war that hurt Midland’s food service industry, according to Sam Lawson, owner of Burger King and Popeye’s locations in Midland.

“We were battling each other, and oil businesses were coming in and handing out business cards,” Lawson said in 2011.

The city’s lowest-in-the-state jobless rate is back down to 2008 numbers — 3.1 percent in October — and some chains still struggle with restless workers. But the turnover rate isn’t as bad, said Cuevas, who would hire employees by the handful in 2008 and have no one actually show up for training.

“Now you can open the shift with the right amount of people,” he said.

Dominos franchisee James Gerety said the financial incentives behind 2008’s wage war did little to help restaurant owners hold onto workers.

“We found folks still would change jobs. The recruitment bonuses really did nothing for us,” he said.

That’s because the problem is not about money; Gerety pays minimum wage, but some of his drivers make $50,000 a year delivering pizzas full-time. During the ice storm before Thanksgiving, one driver made $200 in tips in one night, he said.

“It’s an opportunity,” Gerety said. “They know their customers. They take care of their customers, and they are rewarded for that.”

The real problem is that some workers — mostly the younger generations — don’t understand the value of a commitment, Gerety said.

“That’s the challenge for us — getting people to understand responsibility,” he said. “They’re not committed. They come in, if they don’t like it, they’re out and they go somewhere else. They don’t stay and learn the business.”

Some workers don’t give notice at all that they are leaving, but if they do, it’s short notice or even by text message, Gerety said.

“We make a commitment as an employer, and they are making a commitment as an employee,” he said, noting restaurant owners around town share his struggles. “We’ve lost that, and it’s very concerning.”

WAGE STRIKES

Fast-food workers might not have braved the cold temperatures and slick streets to protest in Midland, but local restaurant owners did share their thoughts on the strikes.

Cuevas said raising the minimum wage cuts both ways: If the government raises wages, the business has to pass along the cost to customers and cost-of-living costs go up for everyone.

“I’m all for higher wages. But you should let the market drive the wages and not have government interfere,” he said.

An October report found 59 percent of Texas fast-food workers to rely on public assistance programs to support their families, according to research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department and University of California, Berkeley, labor departments.

But Gerety said fast-food positions have always been starter jobs — mainly for teenagers or young adults.

“It gets their feet wet,” he said. “Young people need to learn what it is to have a job, learn a job, earn a dollar and realize what life is like after education.”

Gerety got his start at a fast-food restaurant and amusement park. Now he owns nearly a dozen Dominos locations in the Midland-Odessa region and oversees about 350 employees.

“All I was given was an opportunity, and it was what I did with it that determined where I went in life,” he said. “That’s how we are successful as a country, by improving ourselves and not always being handed something.”

Going for a job isn’t always about the money, said Andy Slatken, owner of the Chick-fil-A on Loop 250.

“You have to understand people are your biggest assets,” he said. “You have to pay fairly. But you have to create an environment where people want to come to work.”

A worker’s focus shouldn’t be on a number, Gerety said. A customer service representative might start at a higher wage but see more opportunity delivering pizzas and earning tips.

“That’s how our system works,” he said. “Create jobs. Create opportunity. The wages will settle themselves.”